@jmm99: Good job. Something for you, found while I looked at the Russian economy. The first sentences left a deep impressions in a strange way.
Konstantin Sonin, a columnist for Vedomosti, professor of economics and vice rector at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow has written this nice&short piece. The quote from Talleyrand is in this occasion much appreciated and fitting. I use it also from times to times.In Moscow, I have lived through two ideologies, two Olympics, two revolutions and several economic crises. I have wept through terrorist attacks. I have lost all my savings a couple of times. I am always getting paid in whatever currency is losing value. This week I think: I am getting too old for this.
@carl: It is indeed to stop sometimes and try to look at the issues through the eyes of the people living there. I fear for the Ukrainians and also the common Russians, it is a bad situation which might still result in a shooting war. An Ukrainian officer IIRC described the situation in the Crimean as a powder keg.It is said that after Napoleon committed a particularly shocking and amoral blunder, Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord remarked that "it was worse than a crime, it was a mistake." Those are timeless words, and it is no wonder that Talleyrand's political career began earlier and lasted far longer than the emperor's.
The same observation applies to the recent actions of Russia's political leadership. Whatever the legal or moral implications, sending troops into a neighboring country is a tragic mistake. This move ended all hopes of Russia attaining the long-term stability it has been working toward ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, and it will lead to serious political and economic consequences that will continue to affect this country for many years.
Historians will long debate how such a major miscalculation could have happened, but for the moment, other considerations deserve more immediate attention
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